Saturday, August 19, 2017

Jihadi terrorism has again struck, this time in Barcelona. The aim of the Islamist fundamentalists, according to some analysists, is to intensify hatred against Muslims, because that strengthens recruiting networks. The terrorists are aiming to kill a few, but scare millions and their weapon of choice are fanatics willing to die in the act to become "martyrs". Winning notoriety and sowing fear to help recruiting is what terrorists want to achieve with these bloody indiscriminate attacks. Those who commit the atrocities - often young, marginalised men, alienated and blinded by anger - may well believe they will go to Paradise and receive their heavenly reward. But they are only a symptom, not the actual disease. Of course, they believe that Allah will be pleased and rewarding but their action is not simply a religious gesture; it is intended as a political act aimed at a political end - though, of course, Allah‘s "approval" of their action makes it a sound investment in their perceived "Hereafter".Those who preach hate from the mosque and in the madrassas or on their internet websites want is to create tensions, to stir up hatred against Muslims, to radicalize non-Muslims to draw the world into a religious war - one that they are convinced they can win. But let's not be mistaken. Jihadi extremism kills more people in Muslim-majority countries than in the West. Jihadi terrorism kills more innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan than in the rest of the world. It is just that our "own" dead have a bigger "impact" and leads to bigger headlines in the media, of course.Federico Aznar of Spain's Institute for Strategic Studies (IEEE) has said: "The West is not their real target, just part of their rhetoric. Western victims are for show; they are high-profile targets, an expression of power and resolution meant to bolster the group's legitimacy in their own territory, where their true interests lie." Let us not play into their hands. Terrorism is a political weapon. It has been used by nationalists, anarchists, leftists, fascists and by many nations in state-sponsored acts of terrorism. Muslims in Germany have become a particular object of hatred for violent far-right extremists. The number of people being injured in Islamophobic attacks in Germany has increased this year. But very few anti-Muslim hate crimes are successfully prosecuted. The real number of crimes was likely to be far greater, as most of them went unreported. The PEGIDA marches aimed at what they call the "Islamization of the West," are still going on every Monday throughout the country. The nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has gained national prominence and regional electoral success in the last five years, looks likely to enter the Bundestag after September's national election. The World Socialist Movement says terror is terror whether unofficial and illegal terrorism or legalised state-sponsored terrorism through conventional warfare, whether it is the Taliban, Al-Qaida Islamic State or bombing missile strikes and drone attacks by the world powers. Clearly, there are double standards applied when it comes to defining what a terrorist is, with the media choosing to turn a blind eye to what the political elite in charge of the state does.The solution to the ongoing insanity, we insist, remains the same. There is one world and we exist as one people in need of each other and with the same basic needs. There is far more that unites us than can ever divide us along cultural, nationalistic or religious lines. Together we can create a planet worth living in. We need people across the world, united in one common cause – to create a global society in which each person has free access to the benefits of civilisation and technology, a world without borders or frontiers, social classes or leaders and a world in which production is at last freed from the artificial constraints of profit and used for the good of humanity – socialism.